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Introduction
Welcome to the Visionary Universe Wiki. In the true spirit of the wiki process, we are asking all of you, our fans, fellow creators and just hobby based creative types to make your contribution to the Visionary Universe, an open source ficitional universe featured in upcoming productions from Visionary Comics Studio but expanding here and through other initiatives in the future. First and foremost, as with any wiki based on a fictional series or setting, please, feel free to add or edit pages based on content from any Visionary Universe story, regardless of format or medium, all are considered part of the shared setting and thus part of the Canon of the VU. However, we also invite you to join us in a grand experiment. While the Visionary Universe will continue to expand through various works produced in conjunction with Visionary Comics Studio, we also want to continue to expand the universe through fan participation. To do this, we invite you to contribute something 'new' to the Visionary Universe. That's right, something new! Now, obviously since the Visionary Universe Canon is contained in its published work, and since a larger body of such work is in development, just throwing something in haphazard could result in chaos. As a result, in the spirit of this experiment we ask you to consider the following guidelines which we believe still remain within the spirit of the wiki process. General Guidelines Before Writing an Article *Discussion first... Check the Talk pages for articles. They will often contain notices from moderators giving some guidance as to expansions, or 'open' areas where little development has taken place, giving more freedom to expand articles. If you are considering making a post of a new entry, please first review the guidelines for Adding Pages then propose the addition on that article's Discussion page. That way, those of us behind the actual development of the published end of the universe can review it and let you know if it fits or not. This would be especially important for larger articles. *Research and Learn... If you are intending to contribute an article based on precepts or concepts within the Visionary Universe, please be sure you are familiar with what has been established already within the confines of the canon and are prepared to base any articles fully off of established material. *First Come, First Serve... Please respect what others have added as new creations. For example, if someone writes a detailed article on the mechanics and principles of time travel and posted it, but you wanted to write one, using a different set of principles and mechanics, please don't ravage the given article to change it to your intent. If you feel really strongly that some fundamental changes should be made, bring them up on the Talk page for that article and generate discussion. If others feel the same way, some changes might be suggested. In Choosing a Topic *Supplementary Material over 'Story Material' is preferred... If you're going to create something new in the Visionary Universe and add it here, its much better and much more likely to fit into the canon of the VU if its more in the nature of reference material, or expanding on principles, background or other more supplementary material. For example, an entry which details a major historical event, or details the destruction of the earth in 2010, or is a character entry for the world's most powerful super-hero who's never appeared in a published work, chances are its going to end up being in conflict with the 'mapped' part of the Universe in development and thus be removed. However, if you add background information on a character, such as where they were born, their favorite food, or their family tree, this has a stronger chance of being accepted as canon. Likewise, articles which deal with more generalized development or background will work easier. Examples here could include a treatise on the mechanics of time travel, or a fully detailed article on the physiology of dwarves. *Check Contributors Central... If you're not sure where to start, check out our Contributors Central. You will find announcements for contributors, up to date listings of all current articles with an open invitation for expansion, listings of requested articles, drives for article and art content and much more. In Writing the Article *Quality The Visionary Universe Wiki is setup and intended to be a professional level source of entertainment and reference. As such there are expectations set for the level of quality contained within the narratives, entries and articles in general. Please edit yourself and your work, check for spelling and grammatical errors prior to posting. Write what you feel comfortable writing and ensure you are doing so in the proper narrative voice and perspective. *Be Thorough Please make sure any article you create takes into account as many aspects regarding the content as possible. Avoid creating article stubs, or orphaned pages which do not link back into the Visionary Universe. *Use Proper Perspective Articles concerning real world elements, such as creators, studios, or publications are always written from a Real World Perspective, whereas articles actually defining elements of the Visionary Universe are always written from the perspective that they catalogue an actual reality, real people, places, things and events. They do not reference the elements as fictitious, nor overlap real-world elements with Creative Content. *Use Proper Narrative Form and Tense The Visionary Universe Wiki is written in the style of an informative narrative, similar to traditional reference works. It is written as if the worlds it references are real, and the reference work itself is a primary source of information concerning the people, places and events of those worlds. Slang, casual wording, or emotional context is not a part of that narrative form. Likewise, the Visionary Universe Wiki covers entries over a broad expanse of time. This can make the use of tense in the work challenging. In general, past tense is only used when detailing events or entries that existed in the past, from a current time perspective, and no longer exist. If those elements exist in more current time, or, indeed, from the future, or are general enough to be considered non-time specific, then the current or present tense is used. Check our Manual of Style for more details. Canon and Apocrypha *Respect the Canon... Obviously, posting an entry which contradicts the canon goes against the nature of this material. This is a 'single continuous' creation, meaning its purpose is to explore and expand a single fictional reality, not its numerous divergents. *The Canon Respects You... The important thing we're doing here is that material which is created, and does not conflict with established canon, will be honored and considered part of the canon. Even better, we will be making a focused effort of including such material then, whenever possible, in our actual published work. So, if you give the name of a character's parents, you then get to look for us fitting in a reason to reference those parents. There may be a few exceptions where overwhelming reasons push us toward changing something as established within the content of the Visionary Universe wiki, but these will be very isolated exceptions. *Apocryphal Material... Recognize that the more contributions stretch into new concepts, new elements or totally new aspects of established creations, the more likely the entries will be apocryphal material, which may or may not be supported in actual publication at some point. Contributors should keep this in mind when contributing and be open to engage in discussion and debate. Contributors should also be willing to accept final decisions from moderators when conflict arises. *Speculative Apocrypha... Contributors are also invited to create intentional apocryphal materials which speculates about characters, places, events, history etc. within the Visionary Universe. Such material should be reasonable in its speculation, taking established or hinted points of reference and expanding on possible meanings, or source references. This type of material should be specified and set off in such a way that refers to the 'unofficial' nature of the material. This can be done in numerous ways such as alluding to 'certain sources state' or 'according to certain legends' etc. This can even extend into Apocryphal Entries which can be created merely for enjoyment and interest and categorized as such to clearly define them against the normal body of reference. Secondary Source Articles Another way to do something more involved, but safer in terms of fitting in the continuity and canon of the Visionary Universe is to create Secondary Source Articles, a news article, scientific article, or other 'original source' from within the Visionary Universe based on something from a story, or extrapolations or inferences drawn from a published story. Suggestions for Secondary Source related articles can often be found on the Talk pages of various established articles. In addition, Contributors Central maintains a list of requested Secondary Sources. This will contain an updated listing of all referenced or mentioned references from 'within' the Visionary Universe which could be expanded or drafted. Editing / Removal Members of the project who are actual developers of the Visionary Universe and its published content have developed a great deal of material for publication and to provide a framework for this universe. We will be regularly monitoring the project. If we find articles which we know are in contradiction of established, or soon to be established canon of the universe, we may edit or remove such articles. These articles will be listed on the Deleted Pages article with explanations as to why they were removed. Please understand and respect decisions from the moderators. Visual Contributions Please don't limit yourself to written contributions. Please feel free to add photos, original artwork, diagrams or other visual references for any part of the wikia. This can certainly include actual published work or images, but we also encourage fan-art, or all original art. As with text, we ask only that any visual contributions maintain the level of quality, spirit, integrity and continuity of the established canon of the Visionary Universe. Please do not include any offensive, crude or otherwise inappropriate art or visuals. To maintain a level of quality as well, VCS reserves the right to remove or edit any images deemed too amateur or too low in quality to fit into the level of quality of the site overall. Please understand and respect the decisions of the moderators in this. Notice We greatly appreciate people contributing and hope that this becomes a unique and fun experiment. Notice: This wiki primarily deals with the Visionary Universe, a trademarked and copyright protected fictional setting, populated by the intellectual properties of Visionary Comics Studio and its owners. The material on this website in no way should be taken to undermine the protection or status of those rights and is included here with the express permission of those rights holders. However, in accordance with Wiki policy, the actual material included on this project is open and free source material which can be duplicated elsewhere. By adding material to this project you hereby grant that Visionary Comics Studios, its beneficiaries, partners, or affiliates, have rights and access to use such material in its creative works. Thus by creating or adding information to entries, you hereby, without limit or restriction, provide rights for VCS and others to make reference to such materials in various published media. Whenever possible credit will be given, and if significant enough, such creators may be invited to participate directly in the production, and receive financial renumeration for their participation. However, this will be case by case and no restrictions are inherent for VCS to provide. --C. Edward Sellner 06:33, 9 July 2006 (UTC) Category:Admin Category:Guidelines Category:Site Information